Superhero films usually follow the
same formula: normal, unassuming person has their world turned upside down by a
power that they use for good to help save the people from an evil villain. Kick Ass is a superhero film that doesn’t strictly
follow these rules, and this blog post is going to look at how the phenomenon
of social media helped change the way the character Kick Ass himself was received
by the public within the film in contrast to other superhero films, and how similar
events and instances occur almost daily in our own lives. In the universe that the film takes place the
heroes do not have any superhuman abilities, just their weapon and martial arts
skills. The character Kick Ass wonders
why no-one actually becomes a superhero, and in his personal quest uses digital
media to become exposed. Kick Ass was
discovered via the internet, while conventional superheros are known for their
large scale good deeds and news media exposure.
This inclusion of digital media places the film firmly in the 21st
century, the first superhero film to have links to our own digital media use.
There are two main parts of social
media associated with the character Kick Ass.
The first is YouTube. The
character is first discovered to be a superhero via an amateur video taken by a
witness during a violent fist fight outside a restaurant. The video was taken via a mobile phone. Already we can see a resemblance to real
world scenarios. The ability to create
content with phones and other digital devices led to Time magazine naming its
annual person of the year in 2006 to be ‘You’, signalling a shift from the few,
the elite with access to the channels and networks of print publishing, radio
and television broadcasting, or film distribution, to the many, the masses,
anyone with Internet connectivity, at least, in the field of cultural
production and mass media (Winget & Aspray 2011, p. 234). This video was put onto YouTube and immediately
went viral, clocking up thousands of views in a short period of time, instantly
making Kick Ass a superhero digital celebrity.
No other superhero has found their fame this way, and it is because of
this that Kick Ass is the most realistic hero film out there. A real world comparison to Kick Ass is
Canadian pop star Justin Bieber. Bieber
is a worldwide phenomenon these days, but he started out with a few simple
YouTube videos singing pop song covers.
These videos exploded over the internet, and he was quickly signed to a
recording label and then global stardom.
Are the videos between Kick Ass and Justin Bieber any different? Both
use YouTube fame to get to where they are now, and in many fan’s eyes Bieber is
a very much a hero as Kick Ass is.
The other social media platform used
by Kick Ass is Myspace. Granted, Myspace
doesn’t exist in the level it did back in the mid 2000’s, but Twitter and
Facebook are similar mediums used today.
Kick Ass had control over his own Myspace page, and was an integral part
to him becoming known to the public. The
YouTube video was the catalyst, and the views from that video led the viewers
to seek more information about Kick Ass, leading them to his Myspace
account. While the video showed the
public what he could do, the Myspace page had the extra information available
to them. It showed what he was about,
what he fights for, and had various pictures and other videos of him fighting
crime in the city. He was in control of
his image, something other superheros did not always have. However, Kick Ass did not use his page in the
most intelligent manor. The ‘real’
superheros of the town were easily able to track him down using his IP address
from the Myspace page. Other superhero
films make it one of their top priorities to keep their true identity hidden,
but because of the way teenagers use the internet (Kick Ass was only a high
school student) he was ignorant of this important aspect of a superheros
life. In real life most teenagers are like
Kick Ass in that they post many things onto social media pages without thinking
of the consequences first, another link to real life activities on digital
media.
Another aspect of Kick Ass’s Myspace
page was the fact he interacted with his fans and admirers. When people would post messages on his page
he would respond to them and talk back.
Other superheros would want to remain as incognito as possible, and
would shy away from this sort of interaction to remain secret. Real life examples of this are celebrities who
correspond with their fans through similar mediums. While many celebrity Facebook and Twitter
accounts are managed by publicists, there are some stars that control the pages
themselves. It is those stars who are
represented by Kick Ass’s actions online.
These celebrities respond to comments left on their respective pages and
keep an open source of information with the fans.
The way Kick Ass operates his social
media accounts is the way Marshall’s ideas on the specular economy correspond
to the character. Marshall (2010) describes the specular economy to be how the self is
reconstituted through the screens of engagement and interactivity that serve to
organize and shape our lives. Kick Ass created his
Myspace account around the way he wants to be seen by his fans and the public. This is the exact same way people create
their social media pages in our real lives.
All these events in the film can be traced back to both celebrity and
everyday people’s engagements with social media. Kick Ass is not only a superhero, he’s also a
normal guy who uses social media the exact same way we do.
Reference List
Marshal, P.D (2010) ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47, no.
6, pp. 498-502.
Winget, M & Aspray, W (2011) ‘Digital
Media’, Scarecrow Press, USA
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